Thursday, May 30, 2019


Baylor University Prayer Denounces 'Straight, White Men'
    
Get a load of the racially charged prayer delivered at Baylor University’s 2019 commencement by Dan Freemyer, the pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

“God, give them the moral imagination to reject the old keys that we’re trying to give them to a planet that we’re poisoning by running it on fossil fuels and misplaced priorities — a planet with too many straight, white men like me behind the steering wheel while others have been expected to sit quietly at the back of the bus,” the minister prayed.

Did you notice the cheers from the crowd?

A friend from Get Religion sent me a link to an exclusive story about the prayer written by Rod Dreher, a fine writer for The American Conservative.

“This is appalling,” Dreher wrote. “Whoever would have imagined that ‘straight white men’ would be denounced in prayer at a Baylor University graduation ceremony? I wonder how many straight white men are Baylor donors? I wonder how many straight white male and female parents of high school students will understand the meaning of this signal, and look elsewhere for their children’s Christian college education?”

Folks, it is imperative that you do your homework before sending your kid off to what you thought was a Christian university. A Baylor degree may in fact just be a wolf-in-a-sheepskin diploma.

If you are a college-bound straight, white man, you might want to consider removing Baylor University from your list of schools. Your kind is not welcome at what was once a cherished Baptist institution.

And for that matter, if you are a college-bound follower of Jesus Christ, you might want to strike Baylor from your list of potential schools.

I reached out to the university’s director of communications for a statement about the politically and racially charged prayer. Does the university condemn the pastor’s prayer, or does it stand by the prayer?

What assurances can Baylor give to straight, white, male students that they will be welcomed and affirmed at the school? I’ll update this post if I receive a reply.

SOURCE 

  




Great News! Catholic School Won’t Face Punishment for Hiring Employees That Share Its Beliefs

They thought tht they could win by stonewalling.  They didn't.  Sometimes only a lawsuit will budge Leftist supremacists

It took a lawsuit, but the city of South Euclid, Ohio has finally clarified whether a local ordinance threatens The Lyceum, a Catholic school, with fines and jail time.

Thankfully, the city has made it clear that The Lyceum has the right to hire employees that share its beliefs. This is great news! And it’s why Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) dismissed its lawsuit against the city.

From start, The Lyceum opposed this ordinance, which adds “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes under the law.

Right away, the school recognized that this ordinance likely posed severe threats to its religious freedom.

As a Catholic school, The Lyceum holds to the beliefs that marriage is the union of a man and a woman, and that God created human beings in his image – as male and female. The school simply asks its employees to hold to these beliefs as well. This shouldn’t be too much to ask. Hiring employees that disagree with the mission and values of the school would harm both the school and the students it serves.

That’s why The Lyceum was concerned when this city ordinance was proposed. And that’s why it took action. Representatives from The Lyceum attended city council meetings to voice their concerns about the ordinance. But the city refused to engage with the school.

Before it passed the ordinance, the city council even removed an exemption that would have provided some protections for religious entities.

Once the ordinance was passed, The Lyceum even reached out to the city on several occasions to receive clarity on whether the school would be punished under the ordinance for operating consistently with its Catholic beliefs. They certainly had reason to be worried. The penalties for violating the ordinance would have threatened the very existence of the school and threatened its administrators with jail time.

The Lyceum also submitted a public records request to the city, which it twice illegally ignored.

After all of this – the city removing the religious exemption, providing no answer to The Lyceum’s concerns, and illegally refusing to reply to a public records request – The Lyceum had one choice left. ADF filed a lawsuit on behalf of The Lyceum against the city in April.

The city’s long-awaited response is a relief – not just for The Lyceum, but for all of us as well.

After all, if The Lyceum does not have that freedom to operate consistently with its beliefs and mission, what could that mean for freedom for the rest of us?

SOURCE 






Students and Faculty at Christian University Walk Out in Protest of Mike Pence

On Saturday morning, Vice President Mike Pence gave the commencement speech at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. Dozens of students and faculty reportedly walked out before the speech began. The walkout followed a social media campaign condemning Pence — and Taylor for inviting him. As of Monday, more than 8,000 people signed Change.org petition protesting the decision. Another 6,000 signed a dueling petition supporting Pence, who received a standing ovation on Saturday.

The opposition to Pence's speech seems focused on LGBT issues, but some students also suggested that the vice president speaking at this Christian university would bring racial divisions.

Not only did faculty join the walkout, but according to students interviewed by The Indianapolis Star, faculty designed stickers to protest Pence's speech.

"After it was announced that Mike Pence was speaking, the Social Work department, our professors, designed these stickers for us to wear for graduation because some feel unsafe based on the decisions that the university has made," graduating student Anna Streed said in a video. "These stickers represent that we want to include people; we value people no matter their race, sexuality, so that’s where they came from."

Taylor University has not responded to multiple requests for comment as to whether or not the faculty who engaged in this protest would receive censure.

The controversy dates back to April, when the university announced that Pence would speak. A former Obama staffer launched the Change.org petition protesting the speech.

"Inviting Vice President Pence to Taylor University and giving him a coveted platform for his political views makes our alumni, faculty, staff and current students complicit in the Trump-Pence Administration's policies, which we believe are not consistent with the Christian ethic of love we hold dear," Alex Hoekstra, a former staffer for President Barack Obama and a 2007 Taylor University graduate, said in the petition.

Others proved more angry and visceral.

"I have never been made to feel so physically ill by an email before. Taylor University, you should be ashamed of yourselves," Claire Hadley, who graduated from Taylor in 2015, began in a long Facebook post. "I am physically shaking. The fact that the school who claims to love and support me, and each of it's [sic] students and alum, would invite such a vile individual to speak on the most important day of the year??"

"VP Pence is no friend of mine. He does not support me. He does not support equality," Hadley declared. "He does not uphold the values that are at the very core of the church, my own faith, and I would hope, of this University. He is rooted in hate. To stand beside President Trump would have been enough to put him on my watch list." She argued that Mike Pence "only values you if you fit in his very narrow, white, straight, box."

"Taylor University, I feel personally attacked," she concluded. "Please, I'm begging you. Don't do this."

"As a Taylor alum, I am severely disappointed," Abi Perdue Moore wrote on Facebook. "For this and other policies marginalizing members of the lgbtq+ community (not to mention students of color), you do not have my support. Do not invite this speaker to campus; do not burden the university with the cost of security and transportation; do not send the message that Taylor is a place where only straight/cis/white men are valued as leaders and disciples."

The other Change.org petition defended Pence's invitation, and more than 6,000 people had signed it by Monday.

"As students and active community members of Taylor University, we believe that the University's decision to host VP Mike Pence as commencement speaker should be supported," the petition reads. "By Pence speaking at this upcoming graduation, Taylor is by no means aligning themselves with the alleged controversial views of the Trump administration, they are simply giving a voice to all opinions and planes of thought."

"Mike Pence is also known for his personal beliefs in Christianity. If disagreements arise concerning the personal views of Pence, that does not justify calls to restrict Pence's speaking as a whole," the petition added.

LGBT activists have conflated disagreement with violence. When bakers, florists, and photographers gladly serve LGBT people but refuse to use their creative talents to celebrate a same-sex wedding or a transgender identity, activists accuse them of discrimination and violating LGBT people's civil rights. Activists demand that Christian schools and charities should have to hire employees who identify as LGBT, and celebrate their identities. When they heard that Mike Pence's wife was teaching at a Christian school that operates according to Christian doctrine about sexuality, outrage ensued.

Like the school where Karen Pence teaches, Taylor University holds to the Bible teaching on sexuality. The University's "About" page quotes the Bible on marriage, gender, and sexuality:

All human beings are created in God’s image and are, therefore, of immeasurable value (Gen. 1:26-27). Our male and female genders are also a part of God’s original good creation, and our sexuality is to be celebrated. The God-ordained context for virtuous sexual expression and procreation is marriage, a sacred covenant between one man and one woman (Gen. 2:24; Mt. 19:4-6; Heb. 13:4).

For Christians, the sanctity of the marital covenant is further reinforced by the New Testament use of marriage as a metaphor of Christ and the church (Eph. 5:31-33).

The biblical design for human sexuality demands sexual faithfulness for married couples (Exod. 20:14; 1 Cor. 6:13-20) and chastity for those who are single (1 Thess. 4:3-8). All premarital and extra-marital sexual activity (e.g., fornication, adultery, incest, prostitution, homosexual behavior, and all sexual activity involving children) is immoral.

And all use or involvement with pornographic materials is sinful, as are all forms of sexual abuse, exploitation, and harassment (1 Cor. 6:9-10; 1 Tim. 1:9-10).

Taylor University's Life Together Covenant requires students and faculty to avoid certain "prohibited behaviors" including "sexual immorality (including adultery, homosexual behavior, premarital sex, and involvement with pornography in any form)."

Yet it seems students and faculty who signed the statement consider the Bible's teaching wrong and not inclusive. The use of the rainbow flag — an LGBT pride symbol — on the mortarboard suggests that Pence's belief in the Bible's teaching on sexuality, and his actions to protect religious freedom as governor of Indiana, are unacceptable.

For faculty at a Christian university defined by biblical sexuality to engage in such a protest is alarming. If professors do not believe in the statement of faith or the Life Together Covenant, they should not be teaching at this university. It is one thing to protest the invitation of Pence, claiming it to be a political statement unbefitting an institution of higher learning. It is entirely something else for faculty at a Christian school to side with the vocal critics of Christian doctrine, especially when they themselves have signed Taylor's covenant.

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